transdisciplinarity at the boundaries: exploring a sylvan

Peter J. WhitehouseTransdisciplinarity at the Boundaries: Exploring a Sylvan Metaphor for Health 39

Transdisciplinarity at theBoundaries: Exploring a SylvanMetaphor for HealthPeter J. Whitehouse, MD-Ph.D. Professor, Case Western Reserve University and University of Toronto; President,Intergenerational Schools International. Email:[email protected]

Received 15 August, 2018; Revised 25 November, Accepted 20 January

Copyright c©2018 Peter J. Whitehouse. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Available online 25 January, 2019 at www.atlas-journal.org, doi: 10.22545/2019/0114

Transdisciplinarity is an action orientedintellectual and ethical endeavor to addresscomplex ecological, economic, and political

challenges that humans face. Language is viewedas a powerful tool for necessary cultural change.Blending art and science looking for the difficult todefine but critically important hidden spaces betweenapparently rigid conceptual structures is a core oftransdisciplinarity. Metaphor is a particular pow-erful tool for examining boundaries and developingcreative blends of structures and processes. Forestsare biologically and culturally critical to life on theplanet. In this paper we explore, a performancecharacter named Sylvanus, the Tree Doctor, namedafter the Roman god of forests and boundaries.We consider the importance of intergenerationallearning as a process for deeper reflection on humanresponsibility over time. Transdisciplinarity isenergized by intergenerativity and collective wisdom.Systemic and holistic conceptions of health willbe essential for the survival and reinvention ofhuman civilization in better balance with planetaryecosystems.

Keywords: Transdisciplinarity, hidden third,intergenerativity, human sciences, climate change,performance art, tree doctoring, intergenerationallearning

1 Introduction

The core of transdisciplinarity is a moral and intel-lectual commitment to the processes of exploringboundaries among academic silos in service of ad-dressing complex human and eco-system challenges[1]. Intergenerativity is the blending of differentsources of creativity in order to create novel innova-tions to address social challenges. Intergenerativityis the energy to go between (inter) in order to gobeyond (trans) [2]. Transdisciplinarity recognizesdifferent levels of reality and encourages addressingcomplexity. This approach also celebrates the so-called hidden third, which can be manifest as thelogic of the included middle and other places of gen-erative uncertainty. The logical boundaries betweenA and not-A may appear to be clear and fixed and to

Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & ScienceISSN: 1949-0569 online, c©2019 TheATLAS

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exclude any middle zone, but transdisciplinarity ex-plores the dynamism of transitions and their possiblefuzzy set relationships. Like the fluid boundaries be-tween the Oriental Yin and Yang, black can includewhite and white can include black. Sexual and gen-der categories can be much more diverse than purelymale and female. By embracing complexity, mysteryand awe into our discourse space transdisciplinar-ity encourages thinking and valuing that transcendspure scientific rationality and admits into discussionthe poetic, mystical, and spiritual.

Transdisciplinary attends to the power of languageand story embraced by the humanities, as well asthe methods of the sciences. Figures of speech, par-ticularly metaphor, are key because such linguisticdevices carry one world of meaning into another.They asked us to compare and contrast differentintellectual and value domains looking for parallelsand divergences. Other forms of metaphor are alsostudied and employed including auditory and vi-sual. Thus transdisciplinarity encourages the artsto contribute to revealing and understanding com-plexity. In our techno-scientific world we think ofculture change occurring as a result of the rationalpursuit of more advanced knowledge. Progress isseen as material. Rather art helps us understand theoften-ineffable aspects of our humanity and opensup channels for culture change that the sciences donot. Moreover the humanities and the attendantcritical thinking and deeper ethical considerationsoffer us opportunities to challenge dominant narra-tives about what it means to be a human being andto make cultural progress [3,4].

The boundaries between art and science repre-sent a particularly important area of exploration fortransdisciplinarity. The powers of imagination man-ifest more through story and image than throughscientific method. After all, we write fiction, fantasy,and invented the novel. Transdisciplinarity seeksto understand what art and science contribute thatare similar and what are different as expressions ofour minds and spirits. Both art and science explorerelationships and processes existent in the world, aswell as in the human mind. They both attend tothe recognition and creation of patterns. The abilityto recognize patterns in the world and to manipu-late them is a fundamental human capability. Ourinstinct to find patterns in the world in fact leadsus to create some individual mental patterns thatmay not be evident to all others in the real world

or may not exist at all. Cultures share patternsof thinking based on common values. The conver-sation between subjectivity and objectivity is richin art, often neglected in science. The exaggeratedclaims that science is the only true source of knowl-edge about the world leads to the unwarranted faiththat characterizes scientism. Transdisciplinary itselfchallenges our long-standing separation of the worldinto dualistic notions of objectivity and subjectivity.The understanding of one of the great mysteries ofthe universe (at least to our species), consciousness,needs more than the findings of human neurosciencesbut rather a richer embrace of emergent propertiesbeyond our own individual brains.

Narrative is perhaps the fundamental way in whichhumans attempt to understand complexity. As men-tioned, figures of speech allow us to find or imaginerelationships among different sources of generativityand patterns of connections. The failure of science tofully embrace the power of narrative in its methodol-ogy is a limitation, particularly when it attempts totranslate its inventions and discoveries into a spaceof innovation that might impact human life. Thebiomedical sciences are particularly prone to denythe power of narrative. When anecdotes (hidden sto-ries) are disparaged as forms of knowledge to ignore,we run the risk of so-called epistemological bullyingfrom other forms of knowledge creation. All forms ofevidence have both strengths and weaknesses. Ran-domized controlled studies, for example, can fail inboth replication and generalizability, yet they aretouted by some as the only true form of health knowl-edge generation. Wisdom requires balancing diverseforms of evidence relevant to decision making in-cluding the use of mixed methods, i.e. combiningquantitative and qualitative research methods.

In this article we will summarize and extend apaper presented at the CIRET/Atlas internationaltransdisciplinary conference held in Transylvaniain June 2018 at the Babes-Bolyai University. Theauthor both chaired the session on becoming trans-disciplinary in the human sciences and presented apaper entitled “Wising up: designing an intergen-erational course for the future.” The paper blendsautobiography through performance art as one wayto address the challenges of global climate changeand other social unrest.

Our main character in this paper is the authoras Sylvanus, the Tree Doctor [5]. This performancecharacter is an artistic and perhaps also scientific


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device to help human audiences understand what wecan learn about health broadly writ from trees andforests. To be clear this is not the usual use of theterm tree doctor as a human who is responsible forthe health of trees (an arborist as in a tree surgeonwho removes dead branches, for example).

2 The Transdisciplinary Nature ofTree Doctoring

2.1 History

As a physician, cognitive neuroscientist, psycholin-guist, and environmental bioethicist, I have longbeen curious about the boundaries between art andscience and other complex conceptual interfaces likedisciplines and professions. My own scientific activi-ties have been inter-and then transdisciplinary frommy undergraduate days as a premedical student andpsychology major. I have worked in geriatric inter-professional team practices. My artistic interestshave been based around photography and music. Asmy life and career moved through different phases asbasic scientist to clinical researcher to public healthand intergenerational learning practitioner and ad-vocate, I came to see the arts as more and moreimportant in improving health and changing culture[2, 5]. I saw intergenerative collaborations betweenart and science as critical.

Hence my quests for understanding of and pho-tographing in nature allowed my performance charac-ter as Tree Doctor to emerge starting in 2013 duringone of many trips the Muir Woods (a redwood for-est and national park in California). However, theTree Doctor has had rebirths and emergences in theAmazon rainforest and in allegedly haunted forestsof Transylvania. The fundamental purpose of per-forming as a Tree Doctor is to ask the audience whathuman beings can learn from trees and forests, espe-cially about health. Trees are long-lived, inspiringcreatures that are subject to biological diseases aswell as human interventions. They teach about life,aging, and death. There are few things more alivethan a decaying log.

2.2 Name

The Tree Doctor received his/her/its name duringa study by the author of human cosmologies andgeographies. Sylvanus is the Roman god often identi-

fied with forests. In English “sylvan” or alternativelysilvan means, relating to the forest so that Pennsyl-vania is the forest of William Penn and Transylvaniameans beyond the forest. However, in mythology Syl-vanus is not actually just the god of forests but ratherof boundaries between forests and other ecosystems,like fields and cities.

2.3 Costume

The Tree Doctor appears in costume. I dress ingreens and browns, even including personally dyedgreen shoes. My signature T-shirt is an oak tree witha Yang and Yang symbol embedded in its branches.My usual hat is decorated with the quote of JohnMuir who said that the best way to understand theuniverse is to take a walk in a forest wilderness. Occa-sionally I use props such as a forest green stethoscope,a dryad (tree spirit wood nymph) doll, a replica ofa matsutake mushroom, or owl puppets of differentages permitting interspecies and intergenerationalconversations as part of the performance.

2.4 Locations

The Tree Doctor has performed in art museums, na-tional medical and fundraising meetings, and clinicalgrand rounds in academic hospitals. At the Univer-sity of Toronto an intergenerational dance collabo-rator and a graduate student colleague who studiestheater accompanied me. In Cleveland on one oc-casion I was joined by friends and colleagues whoare theater and community arts experts. Sylvanushas also participated in activities through Intergen-erational Schools International to support learningabout nature and health with children, youth, adultsand elders. Intergenerational Schools [12] are basedon relationship and narrative learning combined withrich educational experiences in social and naturalcommunities. The three schools in Cleveland havebeen demonstrated to be valuable to both childrenand their learning and elders and their sense of pur-pose and quality of life. Now intergenerational learn-ing programs are emerging in Europe and Asia aswell.

2.5 Bioscience

Trees offer the potential for teaching us about biol-ogy [6,7]. They can be considered metaphorically aspart of the respiration of the planet because they


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complement animals that breathe in oxygen and outcarbon dioxide by doing the opposite. The trees playmany complex roles in ecosystems, for example inwater and nitrogen cycles. They sequester carbonand are one of the sources of fossil fuels includingcoal and oil. Trees live a long time, up to thousandsof years, and their health records recorded in growthrings can help us understand long-term climate per-spectives. The forests are homes for many otherspecies. The consequences of commercial deforesta-tion in terms of species extinction and climate changeare well known. Human behavior has also alteredthe pattern of forest fires with devastating effects.Yet wood and paper are still essential materials forhuman communities.

Trees also relate to our understanding of the infor-mation processing sciences. Trees sense changes inthe environment, respond to those changes, and com-municate with other species. For example, chemicalmessengers are often released in response to insectthreats to a forest. Trees have an often-ignored hid-den life under the ground where they interact bothcompetitively and cooperatively with members ofthe same species, as well as others, for example fungi[7].

Besides their biological importance and role asteachers about ecosystems, trees are also a richsource of metaphor [8]. Throughout history, treelikestructures have been employed to organize concepts-trees of knowledge. Darwin and many others usedtrees to describe the relationships between livingcreatures -trees of life. Individual trees tell us aboutthe importance of branching out and seeking illumi-nation through their phototropism (leaves growingtowards light). Roots are geotropic (roots grow to-wards gravity) and can be used metaphorically topromote understanding our connections with theearth and the origins of those connections. Perhapsmost critically for our purposes, the relationships be-tween trees and forests demonstrate to human beingsthe importance of systems thinking i.e. neglectingto “see the forest for the trees” (or for that matterthe trees for the forest).

An illustration of this big picture thinking comesfrom neuroscience where the Nobel Prize winnerRamon Cajal it is said to have developed his pio-neering neuronal theory of the organization of thebrain based on watching trees and forests pass by ashe travelled on a train. He came to realize that thebrain (the forest) which appeared whole in the sum-

mertime was actually composed of individual trees(neurons) that are more visible as isolated structuresin the winter. Neurons also look a bit like treeswith branches and roots when stained with silverstains that the Cajal used to map the pattern ofneurons in the brain. We still talk of arborizationwhen describing neuronal connections.

2.6 Cultural Shadows and Thinking Forest

The cultural evolution of our species evolved fromforest based hunter-gatherers, to settled farmers, andnow most humans are urban dwelling workers of var-ious kinds. Throughout this cultural change forestsplayed an important part in the conversation aboutwhat it meant to be a human in relationship to ourplace in nature [9]. The earliest surviving mytholo-gies, such as Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia, aswell as later ones in Asia and elsewhere, speak of thepower of forests, often manifest in divinities. Treesare very common subject for artistic portrayal andinterpretation (see Figure 1).

Forests offer profound spiritual experiences mani-fest in various religious traditions and other practices.Today tree worshipers and other forms of shamaniccommunication with nature exist in tribes less influ-enced by Western civilization. Kohn [10] has calledin fact for creating an anthropology beyond humansbased on the idea that forests think. He suggeststhought emerges through visual forms. Althoughforests clearly process information, it is a matter ofdefinition as to whether they think or not. But whatis clear is that forests are included in the thoughtsof human beings as they seek to understand thebiological and social significant of trees [10].

As human beings cleared forests and continued todo so in order to support agriculture, huge popula-tion growth occurred. Major changes occurred inhuman culture including the development of socialhierarchies and complex economies. In this processforests were viewed as powerful sources of mystery,as well as resources. Wood was essential to the builtenvironment of towns and cities and eventually toextensive shipbuilding with consequent interactionamong different human groups.

The boundaries between ecosystems, so-called eco-tomes, such as those between forests and fields orfields and cities, are places of active biological activ-ity, including the exchange of genetic material andepigenetic factors which affect speciation. Similarlythe boundaries between different cultures represent


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Figure 1: Students for the Intergenerational School in Cleveland celebratelearning with elders from Toronto in an arboretum. The TreeDoctor is kneeling center front dressed in camouflage with thewood nymph in his pocket. (photo courtesy of the LegacyCenter).

intergenerative zones of cultural evolution. Immigra-tion between national borders creates great tensionsthat can be both destructive to culture as well asfoster innovation. The interactions among differ-ent cultural forms of art can also be a source ofcultural creativity. This intergenerativity createsbiological and cultural diversity. The health of theplanet as well as individual human beings dependson relationships and connections among differentstructures. Trees ask us to look at the importanceof the processes of interrelationships not just staticstructures. Thus Sylvanus the god of boundaries,as manifest in a Tree Doctor character, representstransdisciplinarity.

Trees are important actors in what is called BigHistory [2]. Proponents of this perspective suggestthat contemporary human beings can be guided by adeep understanding of the evolution of the universeand life in it. Starting with the Big Bang over 13.8billion years ago, big historians chart first the evolu-tion of matter and energy and then the evolution oflife itself. Human beings appear remarkably late inthis long journey of the universe but at this momentin history are having remarkable effects not onlyon each other and other species but also on entireecosystems and in fact the geology of the planet it-self. In recognition of this impact, the International

Union of Geological Sciences is considering whetherwe are entering another geological epoch that somehave suggested calling the Anthropocene to markthe impact of our species on planetary strata.

Although not officially labeled as the Anthro-pocene, arguments about when such human impactstarted are raging and include some who believethat our major impact started when we developedagriculture. Others believe that is was the Indus-trial Revolution or the emergence of nuclear energy.Yet others have proposed an alternative term, theCapitalocene recognizing that the impact on theplanet is not equally distributed among individualsor national groups. Market fundamentalism and afocus on individual rather than collective responsibil-ity marks the economic and political forces labeledneoliberalism [2]. Growing economic and social dis-parities in essentially all countries are largely theresult of many wealthy people exploiting the planetfor their own personal gain and leaving a legacy ofecological devastation for future generations to ad-dress. Our overemphasis on financial measurementsof success has led to the suppression of concern aboutother values that might actually be more life preserv-ing. We need to reinvent concepts such as healthand wealth. Health is more than the absence of thedisease and should be based on more than purely


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medical models. Rather health should be viewed asecopsychosocial in which environmental and socialdeterminants of health should receive more attentionthan the current overemphasis on molecular reduc-tionism and genetics. Individuals and communitiescan perceive themselves as wealthy based not purelyon monetary measures but rather on quality of life.A commitment to values such as responsibilities forothers now and in the future should be viewed asessential to broader ideas of health and wealth.

Trees and forests fit into this big history picturebecause their phylogenetic histories go back millionsof years long before mammals and primates. More-over it is their death and decay thousands of yearsago that led to the deposition of fossil fuels, suchas oil and coal, that we exploit today. This legacyof dead trees could be a blessing to provide energywhen we really needed it. But rather than take ad-vantage of solar and water power, we are essentiallyspending our children’s legacy by burning fossil fu-els in excess. Moreover, trees play important rolesin water cycles, and it is water that is increasinglybecoming a rate-limiting step in human flourishing[7]. We are running out of clean water to drink andfor other needs. These are the deep time cycles ofnatural and geological time that are built into thebiological and cultural DNA of trees. This is whyto take the long-term view of human and planetaryhealth we need to listen to and learn from trees.

3 Conclusion

This paper literally and figuratively represents atransdisciplinary collaboration with trees, as sourcesof biological and cultural wisdom. If human civiliza-tion is to survive (and it cannot in its current formswith the increasing ecological devastation), we neednew understanding of systems biology, informationprocessing, and cultural metaphors. We need newhopeful stories that promote conceptions of healthand wealth that are more than just absence of dis-ease and presence of money. Learning has been keyto the success of our species so far and offers promisefor making the cultural transformation we need. In-tergenerative and intergenerational learning allowsus to explore conceptions of time and space thatwill not only include human history but conceptionsof the cosmos more generally. Transdisciplinarityrepresents a growing area of human intellectual andethical endeavor that will contribute to the develop-

ment of thoughts, ideas, values, and processes thatwill help promote human survival and (hopefully)flourishing.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the conference organizers ofthe 2018 ATLAS Transdisciplinary-Transnational-Transcultural (T3) International Conference, espe-cially Basarab Nicolescu, Raymond Yeh and theBabes-Boyai University staff, faculty and leadership,for their excellent planning and transdisciplinaryinspiration. Thanks also to the citizens of Cluj-Napoca who guided me around botanical gardens,rural farms, and haunted forests and helped meunderstand the history of Transylvania, the placebeyond forests. Special thanks are offered to myfellow living creatures, trees.

References

[1] Nicolescu, B. (2008). Transdisciplinarity: theory andpractice. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

[2] Whitehouse, P. (2017) Aging in the Anthrocene inD. DellaSala, & M. Goldstein (Eds.) Encyclopediaof Anthropocene. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

[3] Whitehouse, P. (2003). The Rebirth of Bioethics:Extending the Original Formulations of Van Rens-selaer Potter. The American Journal of Bioethics3(4): W26-W31.

[4] Potter, V.R. & Whitehouse, P. (1998). Deep andGlobal Bioethics for a Livable Third Millennium.The Scientist 12(1): 9.

[5] Whitehouse P The music of trees: the intergener-ative tie between primary care and public health.London Journal of Primary Care, 8:2, 26-29 201.

[6] Crowther TW, Glick, H B. Covey KR, BettigoleC, Maynard DS , Thomas SM, et al. Mapping treedensity at a global scale Nature 2015; 525: 201205.

[7] Wohleben, P. (2016) The Hidden Life of Trees: whatthey feel, how they communicatediscoveries from asecret world. Vancouver: Greystone Books.

[8] Lima, M. (2014). The Book of trees: Visualizingbranches of knowledge. Princeton: Princeton Archi-tectural Press.

[9] Harrison, R. (1992). Forests: the shadow of civiliza-tion. Chicago: Univ of Chicago Press

[10] Kohn, E. (2013). How Forests Think: toward an an-thropology beyond the human. Oakland: Universityof California.


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[11] Whitehouse PJ, Bendezu E, FallCreek S,Whitehouse C. Intergenerational Commu-nity Schools: A New Practice for a NewTime. Educ Gerontol, 2000, 26:761-770.https://www.intergenerationalschools.org/

About the Author

Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, Ph.D., is Professor ofNeurology and former or current professor of Psychiatry,Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Bioethics,History, Nursing and Organizational Behavior at CaseWestern Reserve University, Professor of Medicine at theUniversity of Toronto, and President of IntergenerationalSchools International. He is also currently a strategicadvisor in innovation at Baycrest Health Center. Hereceived his undergraduate degree from Brown Univer-sity and MD-PhD (Psychology) from The Johns Hop-kins University (with field work at Harvard and BostonUniversities), followed by a Fellowship in Neuroscienceand Psychiatry and a faculty appointment at Hopkins.In 1986 he moved to Case Western Reserve Universityto develop the University Alzheimer Center. In 1999he founded with his wife, Catherine, The Intergener-ational School, a unique public multiage, communityschool (www.tisonline.org). He is active as a geriatricneurologist, cognitive scientist, environmental ethicist,and photographer. He is active in visual arts, dance andmusic organizations globally. He is a true transdisciplinar-ian. He is coauthor of “The Myth of Alzheimer’s: whatyou aren’t being told about today’s most dreaded diagno-sis.” (www.themythofalzheimers.com) and hundreds ofacademic papers and book chapters. He also occasionallyperforms as Tree Doctor, a metaphorical creature who ed-ucates humans about being healthy from the perspectiveof a tree.


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transdisciplinarity at the boundaries: exploring a sylvan

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